


in bloom

by handclasp



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, M/M, tattoos are magically appearing symbols of love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 00:42:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17090855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handclasp/pseuds/handclasp
Summary: and at first, joshua doesn’t really register the conversation, flipping through the shots of the bright pink tulips while vernon explains that they’re both korean and just trying to finish a project. but then he looks up and matches the low laugh with a new, refreshingly kind face that doesn’t really seem to suit the marks he has laying on his skin. it’s a thought he stops himself from having almost immediately—he’s being a hypocrite and he’s well aware, but he doesn’t think he’s seen anything like what’s bloomed on this stranger’s neck and it fascinates him.--or, a series of moments in which love (and flowers) bloom.





	in bloom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chocomintscoups (chatdelune)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatdelune/gifts).



> sorry this isn't very long, but i hope it's still enjoyable! happy holidays :")

seungcheol got his first flower when he was eight.

 

it was a bright white daisy along the back of his right [hand](https://66.media.tumblr.com/a9db5d7928711cf3adb09de90eb372de/tumblr_p7hnbhSUQu1snf6tqo1_540.jpg), and when he’d shown it to kaeun she’d laughed and ruffled his hair before the recess bell rang called them in. the color faded not much longer after that, but the thick black lines had lingered with him ever since.

 

his second and third ones appeared when he was thirteen, a floating half-sleeve on his left [arm](https://arcolacreektattoo.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/half-sleeve-flowers.jpg) matched with set of wildflowers that that climbed his up [spine](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bdgidu-lBHv/?utm_source=ig_embed) and filled the expanse of his back at varying heights. he’d thought he’d managed to wrangle his love-at-first sight tendencies in, but they’d only made a fool out of him. at least he could hide them under ratty t-shirts for most of the summer, the color coming and going like twinkling lights every time the camp counselor or his girlfriend would spare him some attention. 

 

the fourth one, however, was not made to be hidden at all. it wasn’t much of a surprise when it had appeared, and seungcheol can still to this day feel the ghost of jeonghan’s lips against the thin lines over his [neck](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2b/0f/34/2b0f34534eeafda8bb632a49d8972fca.jpg), the one that mirrored the one on his partner's forearm. they had loved they way they lived together—messily, but carefully—and seungcheol had gotten used to the seeing the symbol of his love on someone else’s body, returned for the first time so effortlessly. it’s probably why it took so long for the color to fade away once they’d broken up.

 

he was twenty then, and nearing twenty four now. his anger towards the flower system had since transformed into a fascination with every species of flower that he could grow, and opening _coup d’état_ had been a turning point in his life. it wasn’t always the best business, being a flower shop when people much like him had been hurt more than a few times by them, but for the people who could recognize there was more to the plants than their color and meaning, it was a refreshing change of pace to be able to smell and hold what they’d been blooming on their bodies. it was therapeutic, in a way, and seungcheol let himself heal and thrive amongst the life of the shop.

 

and thrive he did, right up until joshua hong stepped inside.

 

 

—

 

 

“take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

 

joshua rolls his eyes, but his hand does instinctively gravitate towards the camera hanging around his neck. it’s not that he doesn’t _want_ to go inside of the shop, it’s just that he’s never been a huge fan of flowers. or maybe fan’s the wrong word for it—he’d just never really understood the hype around them.

 

he’d grown up in a household with parents who only had a set of flowers from their binding love, but he’d seen the effect the flower marks had on other families, on other people in his life. it was sort of insane to think about the weight of them, the silent power they had on the way you were treated and how people looked at you, and joshua had stayed averse to the them for the majority of his life, leaving his body a blank canvas not for fear of love but fear of what it would do. he’d dated, but it was never anything serious, and he’d sort of imagined himself drifting through the rest of his life that same way, never really attaching himself to one person. he would rather let his life be defined by who he was, not who he “loved”.

 

though he wasn’t quite sure _exactly_ who he was yet, he did know he loved to take photographs, and he’d owed soonyoung a favor. thus, there he was in front of the flower shop, lingering outside the door much longer than necessary. “i thought he would’ve at least sent us to like, a greenhouse type deal or something. this is just a regular shop, isn’t it?”

 

“matches the address,” vernon says. “c’mon, let’s get inside before you chicken out.”

 

“i won’t, i’m just thinking.” joshua huffs, but he grabs the door handle. “you’re so pushy today.”

 

vernon scoffs, “me? pushy? i would never!”

 

“whatever, just help me find all the ones on the list. i know absolutely zero about flora types.” joshua switches his camera on, adjusting the lens as they walk. “what’s the first one, daffodil?”

 

they sort of move around the shop in a series of waves, coming from the front to the back of the store every few minutes or so. there’s not too many people inside with them, but joshua doesn’t mind the silence. he likes to be able to focus on what he’s doing, and even vernon’s commentary gets reduced to background chatter when he’s like this. there’s so much to take in from his end of the camera, and he wants to make every petal look perfect. 

 

the two of them are dwindling down to the end of the list when someone tries to greet them in a well-practiced english, “can i help you?”

 

and at first, joshua doesn’t really register the conversation, flipping through the shots of the bright pink tulips while vernon explains that they’re both korean and just trying to finish a project. but then he looks up and matches the low laugh with a new, refreshingly kind face that doesn’t really seem to suit the marks he has laying on his skin. it’s a thought he stops himself from having almost immediately—he’s being a hypocrite and he’s well aware, but he doesn’t think he’s seen anything like what’s bloomed on this stranger’s neck and it _fascinates_ him.

 

“sorry,” both the suspected owner and vernon turn to look at him, “do you mind if i…i mean, it’s just really intricate—”

 

the owner furrows his brows before piecing together joshua’s words, and he thinks he can see a blip of sadness before a wide smile stretches his face. “yeah, no problem at all. go for it!”

 

vernon shoots him a look that’s all but telling him to reconsider but the man’s already shrugging the right side of his shirt so joshua can see how deep it goes. he’s carefully about how close he gets, however, and he’s grateful that his friend doesn’t mind carrying the conversation while he fixates on the thinness of the lines, the way they spiral and crack and fade, the story it has to hold but he knows better than to ask for.

 

he doesn’t get the man’s name that day, but when he’s going through his photos to edit before sending them off the soonyoung, the smile still lingers fresh in his mind.

 

 

—

 

 

seungcheol stopped believing in fate when he was sixteen, but it feels almost comically how often he runs into the photographer and his friend after his initial encounter. most of their interactions are stilted waves as they meet eyes and then look away, but he thinks things start to go a little sideways once they meet at one of mingyu’s parties.

 

he’d like to say he’s starting to get too old to party and be out so late, especially when he’s running a business primarily by himself, but mingyu always shakes his head and drags him along anyway. they’d been friends since high school, and as much as he’d wanted to dislike him after the jeonghan situation had occurred, he knew their bond was far beyond breaking over something as trivial as a shared romantic interest. they’d all moved forward and it was for the better rather than the worst.

 

mingyu’s going on about something minghao had thought about doing as an art installation for the spring when the man in question comes over as if on cue, the photographer’s friend in tow. he’s introduced as vernon, and seungcheol feels better about being able to attach his face to a name, but his eyes still scan the room for the photographer. mingyu’s friend group could surely cast a net that large, right?

 

still, he’s not bold enough to ask, instead studying the lines on vernon and minghao’s skin. they’ve both gotten sunflowers that wrap around their forearms so neatly that seungcheol’s almost a little annoyed none of his look as put together as that set does. it almost feels as if the plants move and breathe with their every move, as if the adoration for one another makes the colors brighter every time they share a laugh. it’s not to hard to remember when he was still like them, and he’s repressed most the bitterness that usually comes with the memories. jeonghan made him feel like there was no one else on this planet, and he can see that feeling mirrored in their actions, their movements, their words.

 

he’s getting a refill on his non-alcoholic drink of choice when someone nudges him gently, and it’s a nice surprise to see the warm brown eyes that he’s quietly been looking for. “it’s almost like you’re following me, y’know.”

 

“it is pretty convenient our social spheres have been colliding more often,” his lips curl up at the ends like a cat’s while he speaks. “though i can’t exactly complain. it gives me more chances to think about how i’m supposed to apologize for being intrusive back then. my mom gave me an earful when she heard about it from blabbermouth over there.”

 

seungcheol shakes his head, but he can’t hide his returning grin. “seriously, it’s fine. we’ll start with a clean slate and everything—i’m seungcheol, by the way.”

 

“joshua,” they shake hands and then take long sips from their drinks, as if they’d been synchronized. 

 

he’s sober the entire night, but he doesn’t quite remember much of anything they’d discussed once he’s gotten home and climbed into bed. he thinks about the empty space on joshua’s skin, and tamps down on the burst of jealousy that sprouts from it.

 

—

 

 

“ah, well,” mingyu stirs his straw around, “he’s…not really been much of the dating type, honestly. at least not recently.”

 

joshua presses his lips together, but continues to wipe down the counter. they’re the only ones closing the cafe tonight and there’s about a thousand more tasks that have to be done. “did he have a bad experience, or—”

 

“s’not really my place to tell.” he says a bit quickly, which sort of tells joshua everything he needs to know. his suspicions had already been practically confirmed after staring at seungcheol’s neck for most of the night at the party, and he’d known jeonghan long enough to put pieces together on his own. it was like sorting together a puzzle but the picture didn’t quite make sense unless someone told you about it, and as much as the concept intrigued him he wasn’t about to go digging up things that had clearly been buried.

 

so instead he says, “has he said anything about me?”

 

“y’know, i don’t recall you being the dating type either.”

 

“it’s not like that,” joshua is quick to correct. “i’m just really curious about him. he owns an independent flower shop in the year 2018. how could i _not_ want to know more about him?”

 

mingyu shakes his head, tossing his drink in the trash and going to stack chairs so he could mop the floors. “just try not to get yourself hurt with this. the first one is always the worst one.”

 

“it’s not like that,” joshua repeats, but even he doesn’t believe it’s true.

 

 

—

 

 

their first date is in october.

 

business isn’t that great in the later half of the year, but seungcheol’s sales are good enough to carry him until the spring. still, it leaves him with an awful amount a free time with the store’s shorter hours, which means when joshua shoots him a text one afternoon he’s not as eager to just ignore it. 

 

it does take him few weeks still before he agrees to hang out with the guy on his own, and they end up going to a movie that literally no one else in the friend group wants to spend money on seeing. t’s not a great movie, but they somehow manage to enjoy it in its terribleness. maybe it’s the fact joshua has an endless amount of commentary and seungcheol’s almost been one to listen. or maybe it’s just the fact he’s in relatively good company and almost anything feels good in comparison.

 

that’s probably why he doesn’t really realize it’s a date until they’re eating pizza at a place across from the theater, the place that soonyoung kept recommending but he’d never really cared to try, and the waiter asks if they want split or separate checks. joshua’s already handing over his card before seungcheol can get either word out and he just smiles, calm as ever, like this is a normal thing that people do. and maybe it is—seungcheol’s friend group wasn’t the most typical combination of people to begin with—but it doesn’t make him any less wary.

 

“you’ll treat us both next time, i know you’re good for it.” joshua smiles, and seungcheol tries not to be enamored by the quirking of his lips. 

 

it’s the first of many and seungcheol forgets when he stops making comparisons of the present and his past.

 

—

 

joshua doesn’t really see it coming.

 

time passes, as it always does. he sees seungcheol more and more frequently, even if it’s just to share a cup of coffee and complain about their respective work. they go on dates together, with their friends, and everything feels brighter somehow. every photo he takes feels like it has more weight, especially with seungcheol’s in them. even the still images feel like they’re moving when he looks at them, reliving every burst of laughter and minor disagreement in real time. it feels like nothing else he’s ever known.

 

so when he wakes up with blood on his sheets, he rushes to the bathroom because he’s never felt a pain like this in all his years. in hindsight, he probably should’ve called an ambulance or something, but he would’ve had to cancel it anyway, catching the fresh black ink melting with the blue and pink shades on his upper right [shoulder](http://tattoooideas.com/wp-content/uploads/parser/Watercolor-Flowers-Half-Sleeve-Tattoos-1.jpg), still bloody and warm. no one talks about these things—the way the tattoos form overnight but still carry all the pain and weight of getting a traditional inked piece—and god, does he wish someone would’ve told him about the ache that stretches across his body into his chest. he wants to cry and laugh all at once, but he can’t bring himself to do either. he just stares.

 

“have you told him yet?” vernon asks later, after joshua’s showered and thrown his sheets int the laundry. he’s not entirely sure if they’ll be salvageable, but it’s worth a shot.

 

“no,” he runs a hand through his hair, sitting on the edge of his bare bed. “it just…doesn’t feel like the right time, i guess.”

 

vernon scoffs, “you’ve been dating for almost three months.”

 

“and three months is fine, if this were a normal world where our love wasn’t a visible body piece, but it isn’t.” joshua says. “i mean, didn’t it take minghao almost three months to get one after yours appeared? and you guys had been dating for like a year.”

 

“it’s different,” he can almost picture the younger boy pouting on the other end of the line. “and it’s your first! so you should go for it, even if it means waiting. or leaving, if it comes to that. whatever you decide is best for you. don’t let all this symbolism nonsense get in your head. you know yourself better than anything else, after all.”

 

and joshua thinks about all the outcomes, knowing the type of person seungcheol is and the type of person that he himself is. he thinks about the weight of of his actions and the weight of his words and the weight of his love, the way he’s drawn to seungcheol and every little thing about him and how maybe even if this turned out to be nothing, it could still be worth the mark. it could still be worth this pain.

 

but he can’t send the text.

 

 

—

 

 

when seungcheol thinks of joshua, he thinks of three things.

 

the first is his smile. it’s one of the things he doesn’t think he’d ever forget, sees it in his daydreams and plays in like a song on loop in his mind. there’s different ones for different situations, like when he’s being mischievous or he’s found something funny but he doesn’t want to crack quite yet, but he likes the small ones that mean both everything and nothing more than anything else. the lazy ones that he sees in mornings, the adoring ones that come at random moments in the day—he pockets them and stores them close to his heart.

 

the second thing is his art. joshua’s made it a point to make a distinction between who he is and who he loves, and seungcheol respects that. he thinks about that one phrase, the one about being what you love and not who loves you, and joshua operates in that same mindset; his photography speaks volumes on its own and he doesn’t want to be defined by his relationship status, even if it does play a large part in his newer works. he makes the line between the two things clear as day, and seungcheol admires him more and more for it with the setting of every sun. 

 

the third thing is the way their tattoos complete one another, two halves of one perfect whole sleeve. the watercolors look like something that minghao would’ve done in his spare time, but he finds himself tracing over joshua’s late in the night when he can’t sleep, or in crowded spaces as a signal that they might need to get step out for a moment. he memorizes the patterns in the same way that joshua does for him, and they communicate with them, in these loud but quiet actions that carry the same weight as their words.

"do you mind if i..." joshua's cheeks are tinted pink. "it's just, it's so..."

 

"go for it," seungcheol pretends to flex while joshua takes his phone off the charger. "you'll be looking at it for a long time, though."

 

it's the tiny smile, the cat-like one that stretches his lips as he says, "i know."


End file.
